S.S. Beck (the name is gleaned from docketing on the 2nd page) is temporarily assigned to the U.S. Gun Boat Sciota, "this expedition...is about starting for a purpose of opening the navigation of the Mississippi to the west. We will have hard fights I have no doubt in several places, and it is about an even thing if we whip them or get whipped ourselves." After giving more details on the planned campaign, Beck writes some of New Orleans, "There has been the greatest change in the world here since Butler left; no more sugar stealing, confiscation of houses, furniture, &c. but Banks has given strict orders that his officers & men shall pay for all they get. Butler I suppose had made 1,500,000 since he came here and the officers comprising his staff in proportion. I know that all of them were living at the rate of 6 or 7 times their salary..." He tells of a woman of mixed blood he has met, "the quadroons here are the best looking, the most voluptuous, the best bed fellows, and in every way the most desirable women in the city, but they are forbidden by law to marry with white men & consequently they find some one they like and live with him as if he were their husband, and this they call 'placéeing.' I was introduced to the one I am living with and after an acquaintance of two weeks succeeded in sleeping with her..."